It was not my intention to go a month without posting, however, the last few weeks have been rather chaotic. There was the small matter of the Christmas holidays to contend with and what happens when you live in a house in Essex rather than a 1 bedroom flat in Hackney, is that people want to come for a 'countryside mini break' (even though we live in the middle of the town...). And not just for 1 night, but for 4 nights and also 2 weeks. I am absolutely not complaining though, and that was a huge reason for us moving out of London to a house. We wanted to have space for people to stay although it does often feel like Fawlty Towers round here.
So, lots of hosting has meant zero blogging but Wig is now back at work, my son is back in nursery one day a week and I am slowly scraping my grey matter back together to form a shape that will hoepfully resemble a brain. Despite the shitty end to the year we managed to salvage 2014 by having a great Christmas but I could not have been happier to get into 2015. It's strange as nothing had actually changed from when I went to sleep on 31st December 2014 to when I woke up on 1st January 2015, I was still in Colchester, still in desperate need of a haircut and still had guests to make breakfast for but I felt so much more positive than I have in months. Psychologically the new year is a fresh start, a time for new beginnings, a blank page and a clear road ahead to exciting unknown adventures. I think last year was bad for a lot of people, Charlie Brooker certainly seemed to think so, I don't know why, but I hope that we all have a better 2015. Amen.
My older brother was one of our Chrimbo guests and he asked me what my New Year Resolutions were going to be. I hadn't given it any thought until this moment but immediately said that I wanted to consume less. And I didn't just mean food. I meant less junk information (on crappy websites), less social media, less material items (I'm a sucker for Gap Kids Sale), you get the idea. It will hopefully lead to a more simple existence. Towards the end of the year I thought my brain was going to explode. There was too much going on inside it, I was consuming too much of everything. Life felt out of control and ontop of all of this (raising a toddler, doing up a house, working when possible, thinking about a possible new career, trying to make new friends here) I was still so desperate to know that we had done the right thing in moving to Colchester I got obsessed with things that were going on round here. Local blogs, local newspapers, local events. I needed to slow down and I think by just realising that and trying to address the issue it's a step in the right direction. My brother thought this was a good idea and told me that more and more people seem to be coming to the conclusion that 'unplugging' from technology is a great start to a simpler existence:
http://www.becomingminimalist.com/unplug-please/
So for the last week I have hardly been on my computer at all, and instead of taking my Blackberry to bed, I have Marcus Aurelius' 'Meditations'. I am also trying to address the issue of material posessions. I have taken 2 bags to the charity shop today and am having a huge eBay clearout. However, there is one area which I am going to have a huge problem addressing and that is any item belonging too or directly extracted from my son.
In light of new beginnings, and the new, more mindful me, we chopped my sons hair off. When I say 'we', I mean the hairdresser and may I say it was much more traumatic for me than for him. We have never cut his hair, he gets so many compliments about it, and it took such a long to show up in the first place, it just didn't seem right. (Apparently, this lack of hair early on was from my side of the family. My Dad used to tell me I was bald and didn't smile until I was 4 years old. Charming). It was like his special power, it softened the hearts of the most grumpy strangers, it hypnotised the local Butcher's wife into giving him free lollipops whenever we went in, the man in the local Antique shop gave him a toy bus for free and our local MP gave him a Thomas the Tank Engine! However, it was getting in his eyes and he was being mistaken for a girl. So new year, new hair cut. And its like having a new son. I can't stop looking at him wondering who he is! However, coming from a long line of hoarders I kept the trimmings and am now on the hunt for an old Victorian locket to put this curl in. Sob.
So, lots of hosting has meant zero blogging but Wig is now back at work, my son is back in nursery one day a week and I am slowly scraping my grey matter back together to form a shape that will hoepfully resemble a brain. Despite the shitty end to the year we managed to salvage 2014 by having a great Christmas but I could not have been happier to get into 2015. It's strange as nothing had actually changed from when I went to sleep on 31st December 2014 to when I woke up on 1st January 2015, I was still in Colchester, still in desperate need of a haircut and still had guests to make breakfast for but I felt so much more positive than I have in months. Psychologically the new year is a fresh start, a time for new beginnings, a blank page and a clear road ahead to exciting unknown adventures. I think last year was bad for a lot of people, Charlie Brooker certainly seemed to think so, I don't know why, but I hope that we all have a better 2015. Amen.
My older brother was one of our Chrimbo guests and he asked me what my New Year Resolutions were going to be. I hadn't given it any thought until this moment but immediately said that I wanted to consume less. And I didn't just mean food. I meant less junk information (on crappy websites), less social media, less material items (I'm a sucker for Gap Kids Sale), you get the idea. It will hopefully lead to a more simple existence. Towards the end of the year I thought my brain was going to explode. There was too much going on inside it, I was consuming too much of everything. Life felt out of control and ontop of all of this (raising a toddler, doing up a house, working when possible, thinking about a possible new career, trying to make new friends here) I was still so desperate to know that we had done the right thing in moving to Colchester I got obsessed with things that were going on round here. Local blogs, local newspapers, local events. I needed to slow down and I think by just realising that and trying to address the issue it's a step in the right direction. My brother thought this was a good idea and told me that more and more people seem to be coming to the conclusion that 'unplugging' from technology is a great start to a simpler existence:
http://www.becomingminimalist.com/unplug-please/
So for the last week I have hardly been on my computer at all, and instead of taking my Blackberry to bed, I have Marcus Aurelius' 'Meditations'. I am also trying to address the issue of material posessions. I have taken 2 bags to the charity shop today and am having a huge eBay clearout. However, there is one area which I am going to have a huge problem addressing and that is any item belonging too or directly extracted from my son.
In light of new beginnings, and the new, more mindful me, we chopped my sons hair off. When I say 'we', I mean the hairdresser and may I say it was much more traumatic for me than for him. We have never cut his hair, he gets so many compliments about it, and it took such a long to show up in the first place, it just didn't seem right. (Apparently, this lack of hair early on was from my side of the family. My Dad used to tell me I was bald and didn't smile until I was 4 years old. Charming). It was like his special power, it softened the hearts of the most grumpy strangers, it hypnotised the local Butcher's wife into giving him free lollipops whenever we went in, the man in the local Antique shop gave him a toy bus for free and our local MP gave him a Thomas the Tank Engine! However, it was getting in his eyes and he was being mistaken for a girl. So new year, new hair cut. And its like having a new son. I can't stop looking at him wondering who he is! However, coming from a long line of hoarders I kept the trimmings and am now on the hunt for an old Victorian locket to put this curl in. Sob.
(I don't know why I'm still taking rubbish photos, I actually received a smart new camera for Christmas, I just haven't managed to get it out of the box yet. Hopefully, in my next posting you will be dazzled by my wondrous photgraphy...)
Then strangely, 2 days ago, I found this in a box:
It is some of my hair from when I was 5. My Dad always said he was brought up by Victorians (as a child, after the War, he spent a lot of time with his Grandparents who were Victorians) so maybe this is a weird habit he picked up from them, which I seem to have developed. But now I have my own child I understand a bit more about why he kept this. It's incredibly hard getting rid of anything to do with my son, baby clothes, bottles, pictures, even hair. Although I draw the line at nail clippings...
Anyway, Happy New Year all, bye for now x
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